Brief bags



jano1591924v 1,481,182

M. BROOKS BRIEF BAG Filed Sept. 18. 1922 INYENTOR MORRIS BROOKS ATTORNEYS Patented Jan. 15, 1924.

lTED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

MORRIS BROOKS, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO THE LIFTON MFG. (10., OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A COPARTNERSHIP COMPOSED OF MAURICE LIPTON AND AARON LIFTON.

mum" BAGS.

Application filed September 18, 1922. Serial No. 588,870.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, Momus Bnoons, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of the city of New York, borough and a county of Bronx, and State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Brief Bag, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to brief bags, and

I more particularl aims to provide, as a new article of manu acture, a strip element for use in building up and re-enforcing the brief bag where the handle is attached, said elementconstituting at once the usual reenforcing strip for disposal inside the case and opposite the points where the ends of the handle are anchored on the outside of the case; the strip, however, being so formed as to a certain plurality of slit portions and the relative locations of the slit portions and so provided with a secondary re-enforcement for one of said slit portions, that thetwo slit portions, while constituting a combination of means to adapt the re-enforcing strip element and the material underlying the same to afford a visible, secure and ideally located mounting for a readily insertable and withdrawable identification card or the like, are prevented from having a mutually cumulative eflect in weakening the re-enforcing strip element as such. and

the mounting is not only made more at tractive, efiicient and better adapted to ex pose clearly the identification card. but a novel co-operation is set up between the secondary re-enforcement on one of the slits, and the other slit, whereby the substitution of one identification card for another is naturally facilitated.

In its essence the present invention provides as such new article of manufacture, the combination of merely two members, to wit, a sin le flexible strip of leather or the like constituting the re-enforcing strip element aforesaid, and a single metal frame; the frame being longer than it is wide, and being formed as aunitary continuous length of thin sheet metal bent so as to have a continuous outwardly directed channel or move. The flexible strip member is slit in two places intermediate its edges, one slit a transverse one, andthe other slit a longitudinal one, the latter slit wider than the first mentioned slit. The frame constitutes the secondary re-enforcement aforesmaller slit is so located adjacent to the part of the strip so held and such smaller said, by being secured to said flexible strip member around the bounding edges of the wider slit, so that the material of the strip member borderin the wider slit is seated completely in an clamped within the channel or groove of the frame, the frame being forced into tight engagement with the flabby material bordering the entire per imeter of the wider slit. Finally, the secondary re-enforcement or frame is so carried by the flexible strip, in relation to the relative shapes and dispositions of the two slits on the strip, that the part of the stri J surrounding the framed slit, and through which the identification card is to be ex posed after being introduced through the other or smaller slit, is held, more or less rigidly, but adequately, I have found, to a common plane of extension; while said slit is so shaped that on lifting a tongue established by the last mentioned slit and di rected away from the last mentioned part of the strip, the frame and said last mentioned part of the strip surrounding the frame are moved together a distance permitted b the stretch of the material of the strip an sufficiently to permit an identification card, even of the thinnest and flimsiest paper, to be readily slipped into place through the last mentioned slit and under the framed slit; the smooth undersurfaces of the long sides of the frame then further (to-acting withthe other parts by providing rigid ways constituting what may be termed gliding tracks for the card being inserted.

The above indicated objects of the present invention, and the manner in which they are satisfied as above described. will be very clearly understood from the following description, when taken in connection with the accompanying drawing. showing an em bodiment of the invention as at present pre-c ferred.

In this drawing, wherein similar parts carry like characters of reference,

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of an ordi' nary brief bag. but one in which the new article of manufacture constituting the present invention is substituted for the usual reenforcing strip opposite the points of at tachment of the handle;

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section taken on line 22 of Fig. 1; and

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Fig. 3 is a transversesection, taken on line 3-3 of Fig. 2.

As is well known, the cover flap 4 of the bag 5 carries loops 6 on its outer ,surface and at the line of fold of the flap, these loops for engaging rings 7 also engaging the opposite ends of the handle 8. The new re-enforcing strip is indicated at 9, extends across the entire width of the flap, and is stitched along its sides and ends to the flap in the customary way as indicated; the rivets 10 for securing in place the loops 6 passing through the strip and through the Eetween such rivets are located two slits, the slit longitudinally of the strip 9 being marked 11, such slit 11 carrying the frame member 12, and in view of its obvious purpose being hereinafter called the window slit, and the other slit being marked 13 and located as shown in close adjacency to an end of the window-slit and shaped to provide a tongue 1.4 directed away from the ad jacent end of the frame, this slit 13 being hereinafter referred to as the manipulative or tongue slit.

As will be seen clearly from Figs. 2 and 3, the frame 12, formed of a unitary continuous length of thin sheet metal, is bent so as to have a continuous inwardly directed channel or groove. In building up the new re-enforcing strip 9 before stitching the same on cover flap 4, the frame 12 is arranged on the strip to seat within its groove the material of the strip 9 bordering slit 11; and the two parts are subjected to a transverse compressing operation to squeeze the opposite walls of the continuous groove together and thereby to clamp the frame securely in the window-slit and to make very smooth the surface of the frame which is to lie opposite the cover flap 4 when the re-enforcing strip is mounted on such flap, thereby to cause the frame 12 to act as a secondary re-enforcing member for the strip and overcome any tendency of the closely adjacent pair of slits to weaken the strip 9 where they are located and so destroy the intended re-enforcing value of the strip as such, and further to hold the material ofthe strip surrounding the framed window-slit to a more or less rigidly held tendency of extension in a common plane;

- all whereb when the strip 9.is stitched and rivetet in place as above described on cover flap 4, tongue 14 is manipulable not only temporarily to widen slit 13 when an identification card is to be introduced through the same and moved toward the other slit, thus to facilitate the sliding in of the card, but the tongue 14 also then functions to'lift the parts in such common plane of extension practically as one unit, to give considerable temporary separation between such parts and the facing portion of cover flap 4, thus to facilitate the complete introduction of an identification card of the fiimsiest material. It will be understood in this connection, of course, that the de ree of movement of these parts held as described to a common plane of extension is more or less according as the material of the reenforcing strip is more or less flexible or elastic; but I have found in practice that a leather re-enforcing strip 9 of the usual thickness has sufficient flexibility or elastioity to operate precisely as described and in quite an unexpectedly satisfactory manner; although it may be that the smooth under-surfaces of the side lengths of frame 12, constituting gliding ways for the forward end of the card being inserted, materially aid in the ease of insertion of a very flimsy identification card. At any rate, I have found that a structure exactly as described herein, but with the frame 12 or an equivalent omitted, does not operate in a satisfactory manner for the purpose intended.

I claim:

1. As a new article of manufacture. a re-enforcing strip for location on the inside of the coverflap of a brief bag and opposite the points ofattachment of the handle for the brief bag, such re-enforcing strip including intermediate its edges and substantially midway between its opposite ends a pair of slits, one being an elongated slit with removed strip material between its sides to constitute an elongated windowmlit running longitudinally of the strip, and the other slit being arranged in close adjacency to the window slit, and being cut transverse to the strip to establish a tongue directed away from the adjacent end of the windowslit, there being provided a secondary metallic re-enforcing member permanently se cured to the strip adjacent to the windowslit and having smooth parallel portions exposed along the line of extension of the window-slit and on opposite sides thereof and on the underside of the strip to constitute gliding ways.

2. The new article of manufacture defined in claim 1, wherein said secondary re-enforcing member is a continuous frame formed of a unitary piece of sheet metal and bent to have acontinuous outwardly directed groove for receiving the material of the strip continuously bordering the windows1it.

. MORRIS BROOKS. 

